


There But For The Grace Of You

by Icanseenow, LadyShadowphyre



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angelic Marriage, Angelic True Forms, Archangel Cameo - Gabriel, Cuddling, Enochian-Speaking Sam Winchester, Grace Shenanigans, Healthy Communication, Kiss Under A Full Moon, M/M, Not All Witches Deal With Demons, Resolved Miscommunication, SPN Asexual Mini Bang, grace extraction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:55:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28379607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Icanseenow/pseuds/Icanseenow, https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyShadowphyre/pseuds/LadyShadowphyre
Summary: In the wake of sending the Leviathans back to Purgatory, Sam and Dean find themselves playing keep-away with Crowley, with a certain teenaged Prophet of the Lord as the ball and a somewhat damaged seraph in tow. When Charlie sends them to a witch in Virginia who can hopefully help fix the broken bits in Castiel, Sam discovers more than he ever dared hope for with his angel is now within his reach.
Relationships: Castiel/Sam Winchester
Comments: 9
Kudos: 55





	There But For The Grace Of You

**Author's Note:**

> AU from the end of season seven, where Castiel and Dean ducked the exploding Dick and Sam prevented Crowley from taking Kevin. Set before season eight, during the "year" that Dean and Castiel no longer spend in Purgatory.
> 
> Story by LadyShadowphyre, Art by Icanseenow.

_And so you see, I have come to doubt_ _  
__All that I once held as true_ _  
__I stand alone without beliefs_ _  
__The only truth I know is you_

_And as I watch the drops of rain  
Weave their weary paths and die  
I know that I am like the rain  
There but for the grace of you go I _

_\--"Kathy's Song" by Simon & Garfunkle _

**C** RAMMING FOUR PEOPLE into a 1967 Chevy Impala for any extended length of time sounded like a disaster waiting to happen, especially with four normally strong-minded personalities. Worse still, one might think, when they were pretty much constantly on the move in order to make it harder for Crowley's loyal demon lackeys to track them. They made it work, despite the odds against them. Dean drove, except for the rare occasions when he switched off with Sam and took shotgun to nap. Sam usually had shotgun, except when it was his turn to drive or he switched with Kevin to give the kid a break in routine. Kevin had the back seat on the right behind Sam unless he was taking his turn in front, usually with his attention buried in a book or occasionally using his new burner cell phone to call his mother and let her know he was still alive and reasonably safe.

The only one who didn't move was Castiel, keeping to the seat behind Dean where he could easily make eye contact with any of them if needed, but could also avoid looking at any of them if he was having a bad spell with the remnants of Sam's Hell memories. He disappeared for half an hour every evening after dinner to check in with Meg, but he was always back before they turned in for the night. Hotels and motels were still just one room with two beds and a cot or couch that the three humans took turns on. Castiel didn't need to sleep, but he inevitably found his way into whichever sleeping space Sam was occupying before morning until the night Sam gently tugged him into bed to lie down with him. The action earned him one of Castiel's infrequent bright, beaming smiles. The angel also began removing his overcoat before coming to bed. 

They weren't just running from Crowley on their crisscross-country road trip, though keeping ahead of the demons was a familiar refrain to the Winchesters after so many years. It turned out that Charlie had a fan forum contact in Virginia who used to be one of Ellen's contacts in Georgia. Dean had been skeptical up until Charlie had said the woman might be able to "fix Cas's head" and then he'd been all for going. That meant it was Sam's turn to be skeptical - Dean's impatience with Castiel's limitations and refusal to engage in combat hadn't exactly dissipated and they had Kevin to protect - but Kevin got on the phone with Charlie and had a fast-paced conversation that Sam understood maybe half of and Dean understood even less, and then Castiel came back from his check-in with Meg at the hospital holding an official-looking "specialist referral" note, and that was that. They were going to Virginia.

The address Charlie gave them took the Impala and her four charges to a suburban residential street with rows of cookie-cutter duplex housing painted powder blue and white. Dean looked like it physically pained him to pull the Impala into the scrap of driveway between a beaten up white Nissan and a dark blue Honda with a bumper sticker warning against meddling in the affairs of dragons.

"You sure this is the right place?" he asked for the third time since they had turned off the main road, earning a credible imitation of Sam's "how dare you question me you annoying simpleton" bitchface from Kevin. 

"This house has incredibly complex wards," Castiel spoke up from where he was squinting at the house with the single-star flag in the octagon-shaped window. "I believe the occupant of the house already knows we are here."

"How do you figure?" Sam asked, ignoring Dean's grumbled, "Well, if she is, she could let us in already, it's colder than a witch's tits out here!"

"Bite your tongue, my tits are toasty warm!" a sharp voice said from the direction of the front porch. Sam looked up, finally taking notice of the figure sitting beside the front door mostly hidden by the porch railing and the brown tangle of hibernating hedge branches. The figure stood up, resolving into a young woman wearing a thick blue hoodie over brown pants and, incongruously, slender bare feet. "I can't say the same for my fingers and toes, though, so leave your guns in the car and come in." When Sam and Dean exchanged looks, Sam's pointed and Dean's mulish, the woman added flatly, "I don't care what other weapons you want to keep on you, but you leave your guns the hell out of my house or I'll hex you all the way to the Potomac. Hurry up before I change my mind about letting you in at all." 

Castiel and Kevin, being the only two not carrying any firearms, were already heading for the porch steps, so Sam hastily removed his gun and tucked it under the front seat before getting out of the car and following. A moment later, his brother's angry "son of a bitch!" could be heard before the car door shut and Sam could hear Dean hurrying to follow them.

The inside of the house was bright and open, if a bit narrow in its dimensions, and decorated with an odd assortment of artwork and fantasy-style weaponry. Sam was pretty sure those were replicas of the twin blades used by Legolas in the recent "Lord of the Rings" films hanging on the wall by the kitchen, and the umbrella stand by the door held several other swords of various origins as well as an actual _naginata_. The woman gave each of them a narrow look before she waved them towards the living room area. "Sit anywhere that looks like it'll hold your weight so long as your feet can still touch the floor."

"Thank you, Mrs Harris," Kevin offered politely for all of them as they arranged themselves, Dean in the large recliner by the window, the other three on the long couch.

"Tch. Call me Kathy," she said, turning towards the kitchen. "‘Mrs Harris' is for salesmen and Army officials. You lot want anything to drink?"

**T** HERE WAS NO beer in the Harris-Driscoll household, it turned out. There was water, soda, tea or coffee in a bewildering number of flavors, _soy_ milk, and a staggering array of whiskey, vodka and tequila. Midway through distributing everyone's non-alcoholic beverage choices, the bronze tabby cat hidden by the curtains in the window came out and walked across Dean's lap, making him curse in surprise. When Sam apologized and explained that Dean was allergic, Kathy raised both eyebrows over her tea cup and said that she was allergic to cats, too, and what sort of two-bit hack witch did they think she was?

"I do not believe my friends have ever met a Green Witch before," Castiel spoke up before anyone else could. "Their experience is mostly limited to those witches who have dealings with demons in exchange for their power."

"In other words, the ones who kill people and give the rest of us a bad rep," Kathy said in disgust. "I'm not surprised. Most hunters chase after death-dealers so much they start thinking the only kind of supernatural things out there are the evil kind." She pulled at the neck of her hoodie, tugging the fabric down far enough to show a curl of black and green inked vines around an old and ragged-looking circular scar. "Ellen Harvelle was decent folk, at least, but I'm not exactly subtle about what I am and there've been enough pigheaded assholes with itchy trigger fingers to come through thinking they're hot shot protectors of humanity."

"That's why you said no guns," Sam realized, flushing a bit when she looked at him. "I thought it was just a gun safety thing, to protect your kids." He'd seen the plastic tricycle on the porch when he'd come in and the kid-sized jacket draped over the bannister.

"Wait, _kids_?" Kevin blurted, sitting up and looking around as if expecting a pack of children to crawl out of the woodwork the way the cat had. Sadly, it wouldn't be the strangest thing to happen in the Winchesters' experience. Dean was looking like he was reconsidering turning down the whiskey.

"Kid, singular," Kathy said calmly, taking a sip of her tea. "And Meredith's at day care right now. No offense to you and the angel, kiddo, but I wasn't about to take chances with my daughter's life around the infamous sons of the bastard who'd put an iron bullet through a teenager minding her own business." 

Kevin turned shocked eyes on Sam, but Sam was busy exchanging a grim look with Dean. As much as Sam might have forgiven his father for posthumously, he had absolutely no trouble with believing the man capable of pulling the trigger on a teenager he thought was a demon-dealing witch. The circumstances probably weren't as clear-cut as it sounded, but the scar on Kathy's chest looked only about ten years old at most, and Sam hadn't forgotten the fact that John had considered killing Sam over his powers a viable option. From the inwardly thunderous look in Dean's eyes, his brother hadn't forgotten it either.

Kathy, meanwhile, had set down her tea cup and pulled a pair of rectangular-lensed glasses from somewhere. She slipped them on, settling them over the bridge of her nose, and leaned forwards, staring directly into Castiel's eyes. Castiel blinked, but didn't look away or otherwise move while she continued to look at him. It almost looked like she was seeing through his Vessel to _him_ , making Sam remember Pamela with a flare of concern, but Kathy wasn't screaming and her grey eyes appeared a little wider behind the lenses of her glasses but otherwise no different from before. Sam revised that opinion when she tilted her head and leaned forwards a little further and he saw her eyes change color from grey to green and then to gold.

Castiel apparently noticed it, too, because he said, "Do your eyes normally change color?"

"Mmhm," Kathy said a little absently. "Change all the time depending on lighting, clothing, my mood... S'not exactly a common trait, but it pops up frequently enough that there's folk names for it."

"Indeed," Castiel agreed, glancing over at Sam. "Sam's eyes are similarly multichromatic. It's quite fascinating."

"Well, I can't imagine a hunter would be happy to be told he's got witch's eyes or fae blood," Kathy snorted, sitting back again and pushing her glasses up on top of her head. Sam, who had been about to say that he would probably have preferred the fae blood to the demon blood, straightened up a little further in attention, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Dean lean forward. "Got good news, bad news, and better news for you boys. Which do you want first?"

"Bad," Sam and Dean chorused. Better to get that out of the way first and foremost. 

"You've got a schism in your Grace," Kathy told Cas bluntly, who flinched and looked resigned upon hearing it. Kevin was looking alarmed, which probably meant that it was something bad. Seeing Sam and Dean's confusion, Kathy explained, "There's a fracture in his Grace that's been jammed open by a wedge of some other angel's corrupted Grace tangled up with bits of someone else's soul fragments. From what I could See, your angel's been subconsciously trying to heal the soul fragments and himself at the same time around the festering malignant Grace."

"Okay, yeah, that's bad," Dean admitted, grimacing. Sam looked down as the guilt bit sharply at him. It wasn't like he hadn't _known_ Castiel's condition was his fault, but hearing it stated so baldly still hurt.

"Now for the good news," Kathy went on briskly, either unaware of or simply ignoring Sam's turmoil. "It's fixable. In fact, once the foreign Grace is pulled out and isolated, everything else should snap back together just fine." 

"And the soul fragments?" Castiel asked seriously. "Will they be alright?"

"That depends on if you want to keep them or send them back to their origin," Kathy said with a shrug. "They've been fundamentally changed from the extended contact with your Grace, so it's not like it'll hurt you to keep them any more than that splash of Grace you left inside that one--" She tilted her head at Dean. "--is hurting him. You might feel a little more tied to humanity and the soul's original than might have otherwise been the case without a Sealed and active bond between you..."

"Sealed and active bond?" Kevin broke in, looking interested. Sam tried not to look as curious as he felt, resisting the urge to squirm in his seat next to Castiel, who was studiously not looking at him at all.

"Angel marriage," Kathy explained dryly. Castiel closed his eyes and lowered his head. "Right now your angel has a sort of proto-bond, stronger than the usual guardian bond. Three options for handling that are to put the soul fragments back in the human they came from--" She nodded at Sam, who flushed slightly. "--and hope they integrate back into the whole after having been cuddled up to very protective angelic Grace for however long, or you can put a portion of his Grace inside the human and make it a two-way Bond forever and ever, amen." She smirked a little at that and picked up her tea cup again. "Or you can leave the soul fragments right where they are to get locked into place once the foreign Grace is removed, leaving the pair of you no worse off than you are now, just with a little less distraction from the pining and a lot more awkward." 

"How do you even know all this?" Dean burst out, glaring suspiciously. "You really expect us to believe you learned all that from, what, staring into Cas's pretty blue eyes?!"

"No, of course not," Kathy said, rolling her eyes. "I was staring at his Grace, not his Vessel's eyes. Safer to do that with my glasses on, less risk of cooking my retinae." She raised both eyebrows at Dean's expression. "What, did you think all my staring was just for my astigmatism? Charlie knows I See things most people don't, that's why she sent you here. Probably counted on my damn bleeding heart letting you in the door once I got a Look at you, too," she muttered sourly, downing the rest of her tea in two gulps.

"What's the better news?" Sam interjected quickly, hoping to head off the demand for an explanation he could see forming on Dean's tongue. He was very sure that he didn't want to know. The question unfortunately drew everyone's attention to him, and he tried not to flinch too obviously. "You said... good, bad, and better... so what's the better news?"

"Fixing your angel up is easy enough for you and he to do yourselves," Kathy said after a moment, reaching up to rub her eyes with one hand. "Probably better for you to do it yourselves anyway. As much as your soul and his Grace are tangled up, you really don't need anyone else's powers - even my benign and awesome ones - mucking around in there." She lowered her hand and looked at Castiel, who reluctantly lifted his head to meet her startlingly weary gaze. "I'll give you a ward stone to take to the hotel with you. Normally I'd say wait until all parties involved are of sound mind with no extraneous psychological influences before having the conversation you two need to have, but the situation is unique and the timing is delicate enough that you probably shouldn't wait. Come back tomorrow night around six with your answer."

**T** HE WARD STONE turned out to be a flat piece of polished hematite with a complex sigil etched into it with a dremel. Kathy graciously allowed Sam and Kevin to watch her carve the blend of Norse and Enochian runes into the surface and patiently answered Kevin's questions about the purpose behind mixing the two languages. Sam had retreated at that point to have a hurried whispered argument with Dean over not antagonizing the witch in her own home when she's helping Castiel, only to be called back over to activate the stone. The look Kathy had given him when he reached for one of his knives clearly said she was questioning his intelligence, the reason for which becoming apparent when she handed him an alcohol pad and a slender lancing device usually sold in pharmacies with the diabetic test kits.

"No reason to court infection or give yourself more nerve damage for your angel to heal when you don't have to," she said with a roll of her eyes. "Plus it gives you a much smaller and more easily controlled flow of blood, which is better for fine detail work like this or for scrawling out smaller discrete wards, not to mention how many stupid questions you can avoid about scars and weapon possession." 

"Fair enough," Sam admitted, and let her show him how to operate the lancing device to get just enough blood to trace the etched lines in the stone while Kathy muttered under her breath in a language Sam didn't want to admit he understood and really didn't want to think about how she might have learned. She didn't shoo him away when she called Castiel over to hold the stone while she dribbled black sealing wax over the blood-traced sigil, so Sam saw the moment when Castiel's eyes became sharper and more alert even before his posture straightened.

Sam tried to ignore the little flip in his stomach at the welcome sight.

After that, with the ward stone tucked neatly into the pocket of Castiel's coat, Kathy very kindly but firmly kicked them all out of her house so she could pick up her daughter from daycare and go grocery shopping. Dean snarked under his breath about witches taking their kids to daycare like normal people, to which Kathy cheerfully told him to go fuck himself and skedaddle before she changed her mind about charging them for her services. 

They ended up at a rundown hotel next to a Waffle House about two miles from the Harris family's house. There was a brief but heated argument between Dean and Kevin over whether or not to get two rooms instead of just the one, which Sam solved by going in and paying for three rooms. He handed out key cards and room assignments to both Dean and Kevin, putting the two of them on either side of his own room, and then grabbed his bag and headed for the middle room with a deliberately casual "c'mon, Cas" tossed over his shoulder.

He managed to keep up the air of casual calm until the door to the hotel room closed behind them and he and Castiel were alone together for the first time since this insane road trip began. Nerves flooded in, leaving Sam trying desperately to look anywhere except at either Castiel or the king-sized bed that dominated the middle of the room. "Do, uh, do you need to go check in with Meg?"

"The ward stone that Kathy created for me would affect her, too," Castiel answered with a shake of his head. "Kevin assisted me in sending her a text message while we drove. Her response was somewhat vulgar, but supportive."

Well, that was reassuring, although Sam wasn't sure he wanted to know what constituted "supportive" from a demon, especially that demon. Still, she'd been legitimately helpful to Castiel, maybe even good for him, so Sam was willing to cut her a little slack in the manners department. A thought occurred to him and he asked, "How much does she know about what's going on?"

"She knows about Lucifer's Grace," Castiel replied, confirming what Sam had been thinking of. "Her opinion on the matter of its removal and destruction was also quite vulgar and creative."

"Yeah, I guess there's no love lost there after the Apocalypse," Sam conceded. Meg had certainly gotten a nice close-up look at how much Lucifer hated demons despite having created the first of them. "Did she have any suggestions for what to do with it once it's removed?"

"Several," Castiel said with a nod, his tone dry. "Though I believe most would not be anatomically possible, even for angels."

"Guess I should have expected that," Sam murmured on the end of a half-strangled laugh, and tried not to speculate about what would be anatomically impossible for-- "Cas--"

"Sam, I--" Castiel started at the same time. They both stopped, flustered, and Sam gestured for Castiel to go ahead with whatever he was going to say. Castiel nodded. Dropped his eyes. Cleared his throat. "I apologize for not telling you about the fragments of your soul which detached along with Lucifer's Grace when I took on your pain."

"Pretty sure we can put that down to no harm, no foul," Sam offered. "I mean, it's not like I even noticed they were gone... And this is the most coherent and clear-headed I remember seeing you since..."

"Since the Apocalypse," Castiel finished, his voice subdued. "I would not claim myself to have been particularly clear-headed since the moment I accepted Crowley's loan of souls from Hell to bolster my Grace in the war against Raphael."

The reminder of those days - that whole two years, really, both with and without his soul - wasn't precisely a mood killer, but it did make Sam wince just a little. Worse, Castiel saw it, echoing the wince and hunching in on himself inside his coat in a way that made Sam's chest ache with how painfully _human_ the action was. Castiel was an _Angel of the Lord_ , a being of power and literal Grace who simultaneously encompassed and defied human understanding, and to see him diminished - to see him diminishing _himself_ \- made Sam want to wrap the Angel up in his arms and pretend that even for just a moment he could be the one to protect Castiel instead of the other way around.

To pretend that Castiel would let him.

"I would be honored," Castiel blurted out, startling Sam into a minor flare of panic that the Angel had been reading his thoughts until Castiel dropped his eyes to his hands as he added, "To give you my Grace. If you would accept it." Blue eyes flicked up to Sam's and then down again. A pink tongue darted out to wet paler pink lips. Castiel swallowed. Sam couldn't look away. "If you would accept _me_."

"Yes,"

Castiel's eyes shot up again, wide and searching, going even wider when Sam smiled at him shyly.

"You're the only Angel I ever want to say that word to, Cas," he said, daring to take a step closer to the Angel, relieved when Castiel mirrored him to bring them within touching distance of each other. "So if you really wanna keep my soul, then I'd be honored to accept your Grace."

"You really mean that," Castiel breathed, staring up at Sam with an expression he couldn't quite recall seeing but still felt oddly familiar. "Even after everything I've done to you, you still..."

"We'd be going back and forth all night if we try to go down that path," Sam interrupted with a smile that felt weaker than he wanted it to be. "And one of these days I'm going to want to list out every reason why I'm so incredibly grateful for your existence and the chance to know and be known by you - good, bad, and everything in between - but right now, I just... I mean, if you're good with it, I'd really like to just curl up with you in bed for however long it takes Dean and Kevin to come knocking to drag us to dinner."

To Sam's quiet delight, Castiel was more than good with it.

**C** HARLOTTESVILLE WAS NOT the type of city Dean preferred, at least not in terms of entertainment. Fortunately, there were a couple of different burger or pizza places and bars near the main "mall" of downtown where he could park himself with a beer or three while Sam took Kevin and Castiel on a crawl of the many used or second-hand bookstores in the area. Castiel disappeared at one point and returned with a brown paper bag adorned with a sticker declaring that it had come from "The Needle Lady" which both Kevin and Sam separately agreed not to ask about; either it was a gift for Kathy (Kevin's theory, based on the wall of square shelves full of yarn in her back room) or Castiel was picking up a new hobby and would tell them (or at least tell Sam) when he was ready.

At twenty minutes to six, the four of them piled into the Impala and drove back to the Harris-Driscoll residence. The center parking space was filled with a black Jaguar S-type with a Purple Heart plate, leaving Dean to park halfway on the street behind the row of cars. Once again, Sam and Dean carefully removed and stored their guns under the Impala's seats before following Kevin up the steps to ring the bell, Castiel falling into step with Sam, Dean bringing up the rear as much from his own reluctance to enter the witch's house again as from his desire to watch his brother's back.

If the witch in question felt any sort of similar reluctance to let them back into her house while her family was present, she gave no sign of it when she opened the door and ushered them in, glasses still perched on her head like a rectangular coronet. This time, a black cat made itself known, casting judgemental yellow eyes over them from its seat halfway up the carpeted stairs, and Dean's snark about traditional witches' familiars was answered with the dry correction that the black cat belonged to her husband Daniel.

Because of course a witch's husband would have a familiar.

"Don't be ridiculous," Kathy snorted, weaving around her husband in the narrow kitchen to collect drinks and tableware.. "Dusk is a perfectly ordinary cat, for all she's more skittish than Andy-- Meredith, honey, come to the table now!"

Meredith was "three, almost four" and wanted to be a paleontologist when she grew up. Kevin talked to her easily as only one genius kid can talk to another, younger genius kid, and Sam managed to chime in with them periodically while keeping half an ear on Dean's stilted conversation with Daniel about the swords on display and the other half an ear on Castiel's much more fluid and whimsical conversation with Kathy that sounded like it was being carried out at least partly in Enochian, which made it harder to follow while simultaneously paying attention to Kevin and Meredith. Part of him wondered if that was the point, except Castiel knew Sam understood more Enochian than he was willing to admit to anyone, even himself some days, and Castiel was remarkably conscientious about not deliberately excluding people in the group from a conversation beyond the natural exclusion of interest in the subject matter.

If Sam were being completely honest with himself, he'd have loved to shift his attention fully over to Kathy and Castiel's conversation, testing himself on his understanding and recollection and extrapolating Enochian he might not have learned, maybe even joining in the conversation if it was something that permitted multiple participants. What held him back was his very clear awareness of the tension holding Dean rigidly in his seat, knowing his brother was fighting against several layers of discomfort from being without a gun in what years of hunting would have had him term "enemy territory" under the edicts of John Winchester with the knowledge that his little brother was about to participate in a ritual Dean didn't understand and barely even knew anything about from what they'd been told _yesterday_. The last thing his frazzled nerves needed was for Sam to start jabbering in Enochian with a witch and an angel, so Sam focussed his attention on encouraging Meredith to eat her portion of their chicken parmesan and angel hair with herbs in between regaling him and Kevin with dinosaur facts and a lecture on the inaccuracies of the _Jurassic Park_ movies; the kid was incredibly well-informed for a three-year-old!

Kathy was the first to excuse herself from the table, taking her empty plate to the sink and disappearing down the stairs to what Sam assumed was the basement. Sam glanced at Castiel, but the angel made no move to follow the witch, so Sam stayed where he was as well. Either Kathy would be back up to get them or Castiel knew when it would be time to start.

Dean was not so patient. "So, do we go on down, or what?"

"You sit and finish eating," Daniel answered, casting an wholly unimpressed look at the elder Winchester brother. "Kat's gone down to our room to get changed and slip out the back door to set up the circle for those two--" He nodded in the direction of Sam and Castiel. "--and she'll shoot me a text when it's time for me to lead you all down to join her."

"Mama's doing magic?" Meredith asked, perking up in her high chair. "Can I see, can I see?"

"You and I get to watch with Mister Kevin and Mister Dean while your mama helps Mister Sam and Mister Castiel with the magic they're here to do," Daniel told her. "Just remember to turn your face into my shoulder if it gets too bright, okay?"

"Okay!" Meredith agreed and immediately started telling Sam and Kevin all about the other "magic" she'd seen her mother do. Kevin listened in rapt fascination, and even Dean seemed reluctantly intrigued by the little girl's enthusiastic recounting, but Sam found himself completely distracted by the reminder of what was coming. Extracting Lucifer's remnant Grace from Castiel without killing his angel seemed nearly impossible, but Kathy had assured him it could be done and Sam figured she would know. Unfortunately, what was supposed to follow was where his mind kept stumbling despite Castiel's attempts to explain as they lay together in bed the night before, because he had no idea how he was supposed to reach out and touch Castiel's true form through Jimmy Novak's body without literally going through his body.

The feeling of Castiel's hand slipping into his and squeezing gently pulled him out of the spiral of logic and logistics versus nerves. Sam shifted in his seat enough to meet Castiel's eyes, and was taken aback by the softness in the familiar celestial blue.

 _I'm here with you,_ those eyes said, almost speaking into Sam's soul, and really, under the circumstances, perhaps he was. _Everything will be alright._

Sam squeezed Castiel's hand back, thumb brushing the line of one finger. _I know. I'm with you, too._

"...and now Kathy refuses to make cheesecake," Daniel was saying as Sam tuned back into the conversations around them. "She did make bourbon pecan pie for dessert."

"Awesome!" Dean breathed, his face lighting up in that familiar way that made him seem twenty years younger.

" _After_ the ritual."

"Awww!"

**F** ORTUNATELY FOR DEAN'S patience, or lack thereof, Daniel received the text from his wife just as the last plate from dinner was being put in the sink. To Sam's surprise, they were led out the front door and around the side of the house and down a hill into the woods behind the property. Kevin, bless him, elbowed Dean quiet when he started to make a joke about witches and woods, which Daniel pretended not to hear. What kept Dean from making a fuss about it, in Sam's estimation, was the way Meredith shifted in her father's arms to watch Dean over Daniel's shoulder with wide green eyes.

Sam and Castiel exchanged amused glances at that, but otherwise kept to the back of the group, still holding hands. The path was perfectly clear, but uneven in places, and with Daniel using the flashlight well ahead of them it fell to Castiel to steer Sam around the rocks and roots that cropped up here and there. What light was available from the moon was becoming more and more scarce as they went deeper into the thickening foliage, though it was nowhere near dark enough to blind them or Dean. Kevin still tripped on occasion, but Dean was there to support him each time, and Daniel kept the pace slow enough not to leave anyone behind.

It still nearly blinded him when the trees opened up into a clearing and the unrestricted moonlight poured in. His eyes clenched shut against the brightness, but he forced them open again when Castiel's grip on his hand tightened to the point of hurting at the same time the angel sucked in a sharp breath. Daniel carried Meredith to one edge of the clearing, Dean and Kevin walking around the opposite edge, leaving the way clear for Sam and Castiel to step into the open space where Kathy waited for them.

Despite his grip on Sam's hand, it was Kathy who currently held Castiel's attention, those celestial blue eyes sharp and fixed firmly on the waiting witch. True to Daniel's earlier words, she had changed into something that looked like a couple yards of sheer green fabric folded and wrapped around her into some sort of knotwork dress. She was also holding a rather large sword in both hands, the tip pointed towards the ground, and there was something different and powerful in her stance and the way she held herself as she watched them all approach with glittering golden eyes.

"Mama?" Meredith whispered, and Sam glanced over to see the little girl clutching at her father's shirt while watching her mother.

"It's okay, kiddo," Kathy glanced over at her husband and daughter with a smile and a wink. "Just some precautions against outside interference from any uninvited guests. This shouldn't take long, okay?"

"Okay," Meredith mumbled, settling against Daniel's shoulder. Sam glanced at Castiel, but the angel was staring fixedly at Kathy like he wasn't sure he was seeing what he thought he was seeing. Sam glanced back at Kathy, but couldn't see anything in particular that would cause the angel so much tension when he'd previously been the least tense around the witch.

Whatever it was, Castiel didn't hesitate when Kathy intoned (and yeah, the formality in her voice was definitely amped up), "Castiel, Angel of the Lord. Samuel Winchester. Enter the circle, and by so entering confirm that you are here of your own volition."

"Not their own free will?" Dean muttered, subsiding when Kevin hissed at him to shut up.

Sam followed Castiel into the center of the clearing and took up position at his side. There was a feeling of _something_ springing up behind him as if closing in a gap that had been left open, but Castiel didn't even flinch so Sam swallowed down his nerves and faced Kathy with as much calm as he could manage.

"First things first," the witch said as she drew what looked like an empty syringe out of one of the folds in her dress, "that foreign Grace in you has to go, Castiel, and under the circumstances it's best if Sam takes care of removing it so the energies don't get confused or mixed up."

"Understood," Castiel nodded, Sam echoing him. It sounded the same as what Kathy had told them yesterday, but now there was some inherent understanding of _how_ it would happen with the syringe in her hand. Castiel squeezed Sam's hand again and then let go, allowing Sam to step forward and take the syringe which, upon closer inspection, appeared to be engraved in runes similarly to the ward stone Kathy had made for Castiel.

"You'll need to press the needle tip into Castiel's neck just under the jaw," Kathy told Sam, her voice sober and intent. "It needs to go deep, but not too deep, so be sure to push it in until the base is just a centimeter from his skin. Focus on the feel and resonance of Lucifer's Grace as you do, and when you feel the vibration start you need to draw the malignant Grace out just like a blood draw, got it?"

"Got it," Sam said with more confidence than he really felt.

Something in Kathy's expression shifted, and her eyes went briefly green again. "Just take a deep breath, Sam. Castiel trusts you, and I believe in you. You've pulled off miracles before and this isn't nearly so monumental a task as cancelling the Apocalypse. You got this."

"Right, no pressure," Sam joked, allowing himself to be shooed back to Castiel's side in the center of the clearing.

Castiel gave the syringe one apprehensive glance before meeting Sam's eyes and nodding, then tilted his head back and to one side, exposing the area of his throat just under his jaw to Sam's ministrations. The point of the needle went into Castiel's flesh with barely any pressure from Sam. He glanced up at Castiel's face, but other than a slight tightening of his eyes the angel gave no indication that it hurt, so Sam pushed the needle in further until there was just barely a centimeter of metal left between the base of the syringe and the skin of the angel's neck.

Now came the hard part. Focusing on what Sam remembered of the feel of Lucifer's Grace - cold, dark, oil-slick and sickening, and so, so, so very _cold_ \- made him feel like he might throw up or pass out before he could be of any use help to Castiel, but he swallowed the nausea and dizziness down and focussed. Because Castiel was counting on him, Castiel trusted him to do this, and he would not let his angel down. Only the fact that he'd been warned to expect the vibration kept him from dropping the syringe when it began to hum between his fingers, and he shifted his grip to begin gently tugging the end of the plunger to draw out the malignant Grace.

It was like watching ink being drawn up into a fountain pen. There was enough of an otherworldly shimmer to the pitch black slowly filling the barrel to indicate that the contents were, in fact, Grace, or at least some sort of supernatural energy. Sam's jaw clenched as he focused on drawing every last bit of Lucifer's unwelcome, shredded Grace out of Castiel. He kept at the slow withdrawal until, distantly, he heard Kathy's voice telling him, "That's it, Sam, you got it all, ease it back out now." The needle slipped free, a tiny bead of blood emerging in its wake before the flash of pure silver Grace healed it over.

"Just bring that over here to deal with after we're done," Kathy directed Sam. "Castiel? You holding up okay there?"

"I am," Castiel answered, though his tone sounded just a little wondering. Sam set the syringe on the ground where Kathy indicated with the tip of her sword, then hurried back to the center of the circle.

"Cas?" he murmured, drawing the angel's attention to him.

"Sam," came the not quite breathless response accompanied by a beaming smile that nearly ripped the air from Sam's lungs for the sheer _joy_ suffusing his angel's face. That beaming joy faded into concern as Castiel peered up at Sam. "Are you okay?"

"Just... wanna make sure you're ready for this," Sam mumbled, still feeling thoroughly dazzled by that smile.

"I am," Castiel repeated, reaching up to cup Sam's cheek and stroking his cheekbone with his thumb when Sam found himself unconsciously leaning into the touch. "Are you?"

"Yeah," Sam breathed. Because he was. Out of everything that had happened or was due to happen this evening - everything that had happened in his whole topsy-turvy, outrageous life, this was something he was completely sure about, far more sure even than he had been about the ring he'd been saving up to buy for Jess a lifetime ago at Stanford.

"Everyone outside the circle, mind your eyes!" Kathy called, and then Sam's vision was filled with light brighter than even the spark of Grace he'd seen moments before.

_\--blue, green, purple, light, blue, cyan, indigo, soft, purple, violet, emerald, sapphire, feathers, turquoise, amethyst, black, silver, soft, white, green, blue, purple, blue--_

**_"Breathe, Sam,"_ ** Castiel's voice broke through the overload of stimuli, pulling Sam back out of the rush of colorsoftlightcolor that filled his senses.

 _"Castiel,"_ Sam gasped, blinking in a desperate effort to reboot his vision and _see_. Slowly, his eyes adjusted to the brightness surrounding him, enough to perceive the faint shadows and delineations of form and shape which resolved into two pairs of brilliant crystalline wings that arched and curved around him like a private stained glass chapel that held just him and--

 **_"Keep breathing, Sam,"_ ** the being made of light reminded him as Sam fought the sudden weakness in his legs that all but commanded him to fall to his knees in worshipful supplication. The figure in no way resembled a human, even compressed down to fit within the confines of the vaguely Jimmy-shaped mass Sam could perceive aroundinsideanchoring the _seven-headed dragon_ standing before Sam and blinking at him with seven swirling celestial blue orbs, but Sam felt no fear looking upon the True Faces of his angel, only an all-encompassing love and awe because--

 _"You are beautiful, my Castiel,"_ he found himself whispering, then wanted to squirm in embarrassment as the wings twitched hard and the glow of those orbs brightened and sharpened. Belatedly, he realized that Castiel had been speaking Enochian to him and he had responded in kind without even thinking. He cleared his throat. "Um, what now?"

 _"You're killing me, here,"_ he thought he heard Kathy mutter, but a moment later she called out in English, "Clasp your hands together and speak your vows. Castiel, you should go first so Sam knows what to say."

Right, vows. Because Sam and Castiel were technically getting married. Sealing the bond that was already between them. Sam swallowed and reached out, fumbling through the light - _claws, talons, what were Castiel's hands-that-weren't-hands?_ \- and breathed a sigh of relief around a shaky smile when warm human hands found and entwined with his amid the glow. Distantly, he felt the soft silky slide of Castiel's Grace wrapping around his hands and sliding up along his arms and that made the smile grow firmer. _This_ was _Castiel_ , wholly and completely _Castiel_. He had nothing to fear.

 **_"Samuel Winchester, son of John and Mary, descendant of Hevel al'Adam, I come to you of my own heart and Grace to be your true mate before God the Creator and all the Hosts of Heaven,"_ ** Castiel intoned, the rumbling thunder and chimes of his True Voice vibrating through Sam in a way he hadn't felt since before the Apocalypse. Back then it had hurt, coming hard and loud amid his hangover and the lingering traces of demon blood in his veins. Now it felt like everything loose and disconnected inside him was vibrating back into place. **_"Of your own will, do you accept?"_ **

_"I do,"_ Sam answered, then had to clear his throat as the Enochian rasped along his vocal chords. He chewed on the inside of his cheek for a moment, then swallowed, squeezing Castiel's hands in what he hoped his angel would take as reassurance, then began. _"Seraph Castiel, Angel of the Lord, Soldier of Heaven and Guardian of Earth, I come to you of my own heart and soul to be your true mate before God the Creator and all the Hosts of Heaven. Of your own will, do you accept?"_

 **_"I do,"_ ** Castiel answered, and Sam thought the chimes within his True Voice might signify happiness because they were bright and clear and nearly drowning out the thunderous rumble.

 **_"I, Archangel Gabriel, Messenger of Heaven, do hereby witness this union,"_ ** came an intonation like trumpeting horns over the roar of the ocean overlaying what sounded like Kathy and oh, that would explain why Castiel had been staring at the witch so oddly when they got to the circle.

Before he could get distracted by the implications of a dead Archangel apparently being alive and possessing a witch to witness his and Castiel's bond, a much less resonant but somehow still commanding voice declared, "I, Kevin Tran, Prophet of the Lord, do hereby witness this union."

There was a moment of silence, then a grunt of pain and a curse before Sam heard his brother growling, "Fine, I, Dean Winchester, brother of Sam Winchester and Guardian charge of Seraph Castiel and _nothing else to do with Heaven_ , do hereby witness this union."

 **_"So witnessed, so seal your bond before Heaven and Earth!"_ ** Kathy-Gabriel declared, then added in slightly sardonic English without the True Voice overlay, "You may kiss the bride."

"Best idea I've ever heard from you," Sam snarked, earning a laugh from the addressed Archangel, and stepped closer to Castiel's light, the aura of his Grace warm and welcoming around Sam. Castiel's heads shifted closer to align all seven eyes into one Face and tilted upwards with Jimmy's head to meet his eyes. _"May I?"_

 **_"Always, my Samuel,"_ ** Castiel answered softly, celestial blue orbs glowing brighter and more beautiful than the full moon above them as Sam leaned down to meet his Mate in a tender kiss.

**=End=**

**Author's Note:**

> Written for:  
> Ace Mini-Bang 2020  
> SPN Fluff Bingo Square: Mistaken For A Couple  
> Bad Things Happen Bingo square: Empathic Healing  
> Sam Winchester Bingo square: Free Space - Sastiel  
> SPN Song Challenge Bingo square: Free Space - "Kathy's Song" by Simon and Garfunkel  
> Good Things Happen Bingo square: Forgiveness  
> SamandCas Bingo square: Enochian  
> Kiss Prompt 30. Kiss under the full moon


End file.
